Tolkien on Fairy-stories is a new publication co-authored by Verlyn Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson that contains the entirety of J.R.R. Tolkien's essay On Fairy-stories. This is a new expanded edition of Tolkien's most famous, and most important essay, which defined his conception of fantasy as a literary form, and led to the writing of The Lord of the Rings. The first version of this essay was published in Tree and Leaf (1964); however, this is a new expanded version comprising of 18,000 words and also contains many more pages of his views that were originally condensed into or cut from the published proper version. An estimate is difficult, but these unpublished passages perhaps amount to half again as much writing as the essay itself (Harper Collins **) . Currently, there is only publishing information from Harper Collins on the UK Amazon site. The tentative release date is set for October 1st, 2007. You can read more here.

Posted on: 2007/5/4 10:33

_________________Surely that is a Silmaril that shines now in the West?

And of course the info given at amazon is not realistic... have been talking with Doug about the book some months ago. The 40 pages unpublished material was put on there by the publishers as well as the publication date... but already Doug told me it will probably be finished later. As well the that there are no 40 unpublished pages, yet some parts here and there... well i have arranged an article with Verlyn and Doug in about three months from now about the project and will then give more accurate info!

As always, thanks for the info Beren. Look forward to your discussion with them. You might also ask them if HC will be publishing this in the U.S., or if Houghlin Mifflin will be picking up the U.S. publication. Thanks!

Posted on: 2007/5/4 12:23

_________________Surely that is a Silmaril that shines now in the West?